The annual Canada Day event at the Taipei Hakka Cultural Park tomorrow will seek to recreate a homely, celebratory vibe complete with maple pie and cider

Festivities at last year’s Celebration Canada held at the Taipei Hakka Cultural Park.

Photo courtesy of Canadian Chamber of Commerce in Taiwan

When Carrie Kellenberger was a child, her family celebrated Canada Day by roasting marshmallows on a big barbecue at their cottage by the lake in North Bay, Ontario.

“I am from a very small town in Ontario and my family lived in the country,” says Kellenberger, who serves as a chairperson for the Canadian Chamber of Commerce in Taipei.

“From time to time, we’d also go into town to celebrate at our annual hometown Canada Day celebration at the local riverside park.”

Tomorrow’s Canada Day event at Taipei Hakka Cultural Park will seek to recreate this homely, celebratory vibe in a similar outdoor, natural setting.

The annual celebration, now in its 11th year, will offer a range of Canadian treats such as maple pie, as well as imported beer and cider from the Great White North. This year will see the addition of an art corner, along with the usual attractions, including hockey, line dancing, fireworks and activities geared toward young visitors: a face painting booth and bouncy castle. Not to mention the mechanical bull, which has proven to be hugely popular among visitors of all ages in previous years.

“You’d be surprised how many people take a ride on the mechanical bull,” Kellenberger tells the Taipei Times.

Though she left Canada in 2003 to travel the world and eventually settled down in Taiwan in 2006, Kellenberger still believes that it’s important for expats to keep their traditions alive.

“For expats, the longer we are away from our home country, the more important our traditions become.”

One tradition we will not be seeing tomorrow is the Canadian Snowbirds show, an air show put on by the Canadian Forces at Parliament Hill in the nation’s capital city, Ottawa, each year. Kellenberger recalls attending the air show as a young adult, something which she describes as being “always exciting.”